Getty Images extends Flickr photography venture

Picture library giant Getty Images has extended its controversial deal with image sharing website Flickr by calling on amateur photographers to dig out their old slides and prints.rn

Picture credit: Rebecca R Tillett/Fototrove

Picture library giant Getty Images has extended its controversial deal with image sharing website Flickr by calling on amateur photographers to dig out their old slides and prints.

Called ‘Fototrove’, the project aims to uncover ?unseen gems? from days gone by and make them available for sale through the Getty Images website.

Potential contributors are urged to create a set of five images on Flickr, scanned from prints or slides, and email a link to fototrove@gettyimages.com.

Getty editors will then assess the photos and, if they like what they see, will invite the photographer to join its collection of ?vintage pictures?.

Getty Images director of Archive Photography, Bob Ahern, said: ?To build the collection, the Hulton Archive is calling out to Flickr contributors for old slides and treasures from the attic ? evocative retro snaps, full of nostalgia, fun, warmth, the unexpected, the alluring, the bold and fascinating.?

He added: ?The notion of uncovering unseen gems runs deep in the genes of the Hulton Archive. As digitising photos has never been easier, the time is right to explore a different aesthetic to the great press and historical collections we hold.?

Ahern told us that the photographer will receive a fee that is in line with the ?current guidelines in place for existing Flickr contributors?.

Getty says the images should be ?relevant to a creative, commercial stock photography collection, so subjects like news, celebrities and product photography should not be included’.

And the agency stresses it is not after ?recent images with a vintage look?, adding: ?This collection is just for genuine old pictures?.

Ahern continued: ?With the expertise of the archival editors, Getty Images can now bring the best from the world to the professional markets.?

Last year the picture library giant was criticised for taking its existing deal with Flickr a step too far by enabling photographers to indicate on the Flickr website whether they want their uploaded pictures to be available for sale by Getty, to third parties.

Critics claimed that the move would exploit amateurs by handing Getty the rights to all their pictures, leading them to inadvertently accept fees lower than professional photographers would receive.

Getty Images hit back saying the deal opened up the market for images sourced through Flickr and ensured imagery would be eligible to become legally licensable to customers around the world.

In the past, professional photographers have expressed fears that the Getty/Flickr agreement poses a threat to their income stream.